• TITLE: Never Let Me Go
• AUTHOR: Kazuo Ishiguro
• PAGES: 288 in 3 parts (111/89/82)
• CHAPTERS: 23 in 3 parts (9/8/6)

⚠️ SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD (obviously). ⚠️

Part 1

Chapter 1

• Kathy Intro - “good work” - Tommy & Ruth - Hailsham
• Sports Pavilion - Tommy blue polo - getting wound up not getting picked. Laura makes faces. Tommy tantrum. Kathy calms him down at cost of bite

Chapter 2

• Tommy apologizes. Kathy talks about it in dorm after hours. Explain Art Exchanges. Miss Geraldine art class. Tommy stops anger. Miss Lucy.

Chapter 3

• At lake, Tommy tells Kathy about talk with Ms Lucy
• Ok to not be creative, not taught enough, seething anger.
• Art Gallery, ambush Madame and realize she’s scared of the students like spiders. Disgust

Chapter 4

• Tokens / Exchange -> fake capitalism. Annoyed Madame takes best work away for free like a tax
• Emily know when you’re hiding
• Ruth’s invisible horses

Chapter 5

• Secret guard for Miss Geraldine (plot to kidnap her). Scary woods with rumors.
• Ruth’s fantasy - rule maker - chess/expose Ruth. Expelled, Moira attempts sympathy, but Kathy reacts badly
• Pencil case gift lie, Kathy exposes Ruth.
• They all want love from a guardian.

Chapter 6

• Kathy protects Ruth’s secret from Midge asking about the pencil case. Saves her face.
• Kathy talks about Judy Bridgewater’s album “Songs After Dark”… Norfolk without a picture calendar and becoming a place of lost items….smoking is super taboo and Lucy smoked, and ostracizing Marge for asking… Kathy sneaking to dorm to listen, Madame walks in on her dancing with pillow baby, tape disappears.
• Ruth pays back Kathy saving her face with a tape… not the one Kathy lost, but Dance Tunes.

Chapter 7

• Miss Lucy tells them they need to stop talking about becoming actors or going to America because they’ve been told and not told what they’re meant to do in life
• Guardians good at lumping sex talk with donations
• Tommy gash. Elbow popping out.

Chapter 8

• Guardians want students to have sex but don’t give them privacy or time or places to… so it’s weird and awkward
• Kath plans on sleeping with Harry

Chapter 9

• Kath expected to be next in line after Ruth broke up with Tommy. Instead, Ruth asks Kath to help get back together with Tommy.
• Tommy talks about Ms. Lucy. She reveals art is evidence and regrets telling Tommy he could ignore it. She gets fired later

Part 2

39%

Chapter 10

• Cottages. Keffers. Cold. Ruth and Tommy PDA. Ruth and Tommy copying the veterans, who are copying a TV show. Kath calls Ruth out when Ruth tried to ruin the plot of a book. But Ruth turns the tables. Accuses Kath of not making new friends.
• Reading Daniel Deronda, a novel with a present day scene and then a bifurcated flashback sequence for the two characters.

Chapter 11

• Kath reveals Ruth and her have nightly talks and they confide in each other freely here. But that talk felt like betrayal. Ruth later reflects that Kath felt betrayed too and she was getting in with the veterans on their behalf.
• Kath also revealed one night stands to Ruth
• Refer to veteran’s who left by name. Dave’s Stump. Steve’s Collection. Tommy catches Kath with a pile of porn mags. Asks her what she’s looking for.

Chapter 12

• The concept of possibles is revealed. Midpoint reveal that yes, they are clones. Chrissie and Rodney claim to have seen a possible. Ruth buys into it

Chapter 13

• Drive to Norfolk. Ruth in the middle in the back talking to the veterans. The cliffside cafe overlooking the sea.
• The veterans bring up the concept of deferrals that happen at Hailsham . Tommy doesn’t play along with Ruth and Kath about it.

Chapter 14

• Spy in possible, wait, follow possible. Art gallery. Too close. False apologies and Ruth rant that shares cloning perspective

Chapter 15

• Tommy and Kath find the lost tape of Judy Bridgewater. Kath hesitates, then finds pleasure in it.
• Tommy shares his theory on the art gallley and how they might use it to test if clones really are in love. Tommy also has theory of why Kath obsesses over porn mags. He nails it. Kath thinks her weird sex drive is due to her possible being a porn star. She cries. Tommy comforts her.

Chapter 16

• Tommy shares his imaginary animals with Kath
• Ruth “accidentally” discovers the tape and gets Kath to confess.
• Ruth ambushes Kath and belittles Tommy in front of him, pulling in Kath’s mistake from the tape discovery and laughing about Tommy… making it seem like Kath was in cahoots with Ruth.

Chapter 17

• Kath talks to Ruth about the incident. Ruth tells her she might not be with Tommy anymore… but Tommy won’t date Kath because she’s been around. Ruth pretends to not remember the rhubarb path. Kath decides to start training to leave the cottages.

Part 3

70%

Chapter 18

• Meet Laura was dead eyes. Closing of Hailsham. Suggests she become Ruth’s carer.
• Kath does. Ruth talks about a boat. But also near where Tommy is. Visit.

Chapter 19

• Ruth freaks out when she sees Tommy. Freezes. They drive to the boat, Ruth tells boring story and smiles at Tommy the entire time until Kath and Tommy gently shut her up. At boat, Ruth attempts to start conspiracy that they don’t tell them how often donors complete by second donation. Kath shuts it down.
• Kath and Tommy team up against Ruth over a billboard, then Ruth not pursuing the office job. Ruth is defeated and not fighting back.. and asks for forgiveness instead. For not validating Kath’s sexual urges. For keeping Tommy and Kath apart.
• Ruth hands them Madame’s address. This is the beginning of the end - the climax.

Chapter 20

• Tommy and Kath start having sex. Tommy starts drawing his imaginary animals again. Kath reveals she spied on and verified Madame’s address and saw her. They plan to see her

Chapter 21

• Madame let’s them in the house. She goes upstairs to tlak to someone. They explain everything to Madame. Madame keeps asking if she went too far or continue. She’s actually talking to the person in the dark, wheels her in, it’s Miss Emily in a wheelchair

Chapter 22

• Big reveal of everything.

Chapter 23

• Tommy wants someone else as his carer. Asks Kath why she hasn’t wondered why she still hasn’t gotten a notice to be a donor.